Walt Disney Characters Opinion Article

glelsey's Favourite Walt Disney Villains!

After publishing my previous article on my favourite Walt Disney characters, I got a couple of suggestions to write about my favourite Walt Disney villains. Therefore in this article, I will list a few personal favourite bad guys of mine and what it is I like about them.

Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmatians)

I consider Cruella to be my all-time favourite Disney villain! She's eccentric, funny, got oodles of personality, and - as a villain should be - she is downright despicable. Cruella is a sick creep who sees live animals as fashion material, doesn't care how many animals or humans she has to abuse to achieve her goal, and she is incredibly vain.

To top it all off, Cruella De Vil's theme song is my personal favourite Disney song. That tune and I go way back... I taught myself to play it on the piano when I was a kid, and by the time I was 11, performing that song had become my trademark at school. It was my little childhood claim to fame! Not that I personally would want to be associated with Cruella other than her awesome, jazzy theme music. I love her as a villain and never get tired of her, but, much like the other characters listed here, she is not someone I'd want too much in common with!

Claude Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

An incredibly sinister villain. This movie is considered one of Disney's darkest; maybe because in the first few minutes we get to witness the murder of an innocent woman who is trying to care for her newborn child, maybe because Paris goes up in flames, and maybe because a lot of the good guys in this movie have perilous things happen to them. Hey, guess who's responsible for all those things? To top off Frollo's dastardly deeds, he always comes across cold-hearted and creepy. He is one nasty bit of work!

Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)

A terrible, abusive person who goes around believing he is God's gift to women, takes his poor lackey LeFou for granted, and is probably one of the most shallow of all Disney characters. Oh, and like Cruella, he seems to have a fondness for killing innocent animals for their pelts (... and antlers). Gaston is basically everything that's wrong with the world, although I gotta admit he does have a lot of funny, comical moments too! I think it's the combination of how entertaining he can be, and how dastardly his personality and actions are, that make him one of my favourite characters in the movie and one of my favourite villains.

Scar (The Lion King)

A villain so determined to get what he wants, he's willing to kill his own family to get there! Yikes. Anyway, it's not just all the perilous things that Scar does that makes him a great villain, but also his personality in general; the sinister way he delivers lines to those who don't realise just how evil he is, his deadpan sarcasm towards the hyenas, and of course his fabulous mannerisms (seriously, I've seen fans do parodies of L'oreal commercials using clips of Scar while he's singing "Be Prepared"). A villain that is both deliciously evil and wonderfully entertaining.

The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)

It was only after watching this movie earlier this year (having not seen it since I was a kid) that I decided that the Queen of Hearts was my favourite character in the film. She's royalty and a grown woman... who happens to be an obnoxious, spoiled brat. She's completely reckless and has a habit of abusing her power, much to the expense of everyone around her. When watching this movie recently, I thought to myself, "this is exactly how I imagine Lucy Van Pelt to be as an adult". And that's probably when I decided that I loved this character.

Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

Much like the aforementioned Queen of Hearts, this is another villain who recently became my favourite character in her respective movie, only after re-watching it this year. Not only is Ursula totally selfish, cruel, and sinister, but she is also one confident lady who really loves herself! I love her mannerisms and the amount of personality she has just in the way she moves around, and her facial expressions. She's so bold! All this combined with her evilness and how cunning she is, and you've got an awesome villain right there.

Jafar (Aladdin)

So apparently I really like villains who were animated by Andreas Deja (the artist behind Scar and Gaston too). Like those other two bad guys, Jafar has tons of personality in his facial expressions and body language. But I also love how sinister his voice is, and the delivery of his dialogue. He's greedy and super creepy - it's not difficult to see why Jasmine is so disgusted by him - and like Scar to the hyenas or Gaston to LeFou, Jafar is not easy-going on his lackey Iago. Seriously, that parrot goes through some painful stuff!

Bellwether (Zootopia / Zootropolis)

A different type of baddie who contrasts nicely with the previous examples. Bellwether is a total pushover who always seems to be juggling lots of reponsibilities, and she is so sweet and supportive of the heroes and their work. But, y'know, we find out that there's a little bit more to her motives as the movie progresses. I love the way she is introduced as super nice, and how much that contrasts with her evil side revealed later on. I also like that there's some good depth to her motives; her reasons for going overboard and becoming a full-on villain are actually things that others were doing wrong in the first place. She hates prejudice and discrimination, but rather than merely striving for equality, she fights fire with fire. I think there's a good precautionary tale we can learn from her character - when someone's doing something bad to you and you want to fight back, watch out that you don't end up stooping to their level!

And there we are. Of course, there are plenty of other Disney villains that I like a lot, but these ones are probably my favourites.

7 comments

Once again, a great article with some great Images to boost! :D And I'm so happy to see some of my fave villains here as well. (One of them being my favorite Disney Character as well - looking at you, Ursula/Vanessa)

But yeah, I love most of 'em as well! Ursula, Jafar, Scar, Gaston, Cruella and Frollo :D

A little tidbit: Did you know that Andreas Deja not only animated Gaston, Jafar and Scar, but also animated Vanessa (Ursula's human form) in The Little Mermaid? ;)

I have the Disney Book "The Disney Villain" by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas and in the back of the book it has a list of all the Disney Villains up to Jafar and who was the Supervising Animator and the In-between Animators for each villian. If you don't have the book, I highly recommend buying it! It's a great book for any animation fans to have!

Here are all the Animators who did the animation of your favorite villains from your list, exept Scar, Claude Frollo and Bellwether:

Now, I also have the new book "Disney Villains: Delightfully Evil" and I found the following information about the rest of the characters on your list. Although it only lists the head animator for each villain: